Post by Dennis of Ravenscar on Feb 28, 2020 16:22:37 GMT
A Day of Grace – A Nicholas Grace Celebration
A Day of Grace was a one-day event organised by Barnaby Eaton Jones on Saturday 22nd February at the Cheltenham Playhouse. The day was intended for fans to meet the delightful Nicholas Grace and to sit in talks, listen to his many stories and generally celebrate his career.
Having previously met Nicholas or his ‘Grace’ at several events it was obvious it was going to be a fun day from the beginning. He is always very friendly and pleased to talk to fans, is a great raconteur and one can easily listen to and be amused by any story he tells.
Living in Sussex we are about 3-4 hours away from Cheltenham, so Lucy and I decided to head over on the Friday before the event and stay in a hotel. This meant we could be nice and fresh for the day with his Grace 😊 and perhaps socialise with fellow fans. Friday afternoons are always busy on the roads, so our journey did take over 4 hours, but we found parking and our hotel easily thanks to our trusty sat nav. After checking in at a Premier Inn we had a wander around Cheltenham and found a most amazing book shop where we spent some browsing through books and maps. If you ever stop by Cheltenham and you’re into books or maps, then Moss Books is well worth a visit. We then had a nice meal at a Sri Lankan restaurant which served meals in a tapas format and was very tasty. If you do stop by the Coconut Tree do take advantage of their 2 for 1 cocktails! 😊
The next morning after breakfast we wandered over to the venue, The Cheltenham Playhouse, which was a short walk from the hotel. The building is quite interesting as it started life as a bathhouse in 1806 before being converted to a theatre in 1945. With an Art Deco style and an intimate stage area it seemed an appropriate venue to celebrate the career of our beloved Sheriff. Upon arrival we were informed the Playhouse had suffered a break in and had to access via a side entrance.
Coffee and light refreshments were available as we sat and waited with other fans in the foyer, many of which we knew and spent a bit of time catching up with. Like all of Barnaby events it was all friendly and relaxed and after a short wait we entered the main auditorium for our audience with the Sheriff! Nick entered to the stage singing a song, from Cabaret; “Willkommen! And Bienvenue! Welcome! Fremder, étranger, Stranger, Glücklich zu sehen , Je suis enchanté, Happy to see you..."
He was joined by Paul Scott, the Playhouse manager who asked questions and kept things moving along. There was a slide show detailing Nick’s early life, who was born in West Kirby in the Wirral and was referred to as a ‘plastic scouser’ by the great Sir Paul McCartney. Originally Nick had quite a distinct scouse accent, but his parents sent him to elocution lessons. We were then lectured on the origins of the Liver Birds (not the TV series with Nerys Hughes!) The liver bird is a mythical creature and is the symbol of the English city of Liverpool. It is normally represented as a cormorant and appears as such on the city's coat of arms, in which it bears a branch of laver seaweed in its beak as a further pun on the name "Liverpool". Two most famous Liver Bird statues stand atop the clock towers of the Royal Liver Building at Liverpool's Pier Head, overlooking the river Mersey. NG had quite a relaxed attitude to studies and due to this he failed his Spanish ‘A’ Level and was not able to obtain his desired grades and therefore missed out on going to University.
Nick also recounted his story on the setting up of the Redgrave Society at his school. Due to the fact he was a day boy and not a boarder he wasn’t included in the Acting society. Therefore, he asked the headmaster’s permission if he could start up an acting society for the day boys. The Headmaster agreed after hearing Nick’s proposal with a ‘Good, good’. He wrote many letters which were never answered to Sir Michael Redgrave asking if it was okay to use the Redgrave name and if he wanted to be the Society President. So, instead he tried another tack and wrote to Vanessa, Michael’s daughter, who not only answered the letter but that she’d be honoured to be the Redgrave Society President, but also wanted to visit and have lunch! On the day of her visit Nick greeted her and showed her to the headmaster who promptly dismissed him and closed the door on him!
After concluding his studies at school Nick went on to the Central School of Speech and Drama, beating 250 people to a place at the last minute. It was there that he met his life-long friend Lynda Bellingham, with whom he shared a flat in London. Leaving Central he made his debut at Frinton on Sea theatre in rep, doing eight plays in eight weeks. In 1972 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company acting in various plays including Richard II, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Murder in the Cathedral at the Aldwych Theatre in London, and later performed at Stratford upon Avon, appearing in plays such as Troilus and Cressida and A Comedy of Errors.
in 1978 Nick performed in Dracula with Terrance Stamp, a production that had been running for a long time in New York. Unfortunately, it didn’t do too well in London, and the production soon closed. He got the starring role of Mozart in Amadeus, directed by Peter Hall (who hardly ever turned up to rehearsals!) in 1982 and then did a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan productions. This included HMS Pinafore, where he modelled his Joseph Porter on Prince Charles, which was a little awkward when the Prince attended a charity concert which Nick was singing in! He also played Voltaire/Pangloss in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and was delighted to meet the maestro himself (and receive a French kiss from him!) Another play that was fun to do was the Mystery of Irma Veps where two actors play all the roles and must frequently switch costumes in seconds. This was achieved with Velcro and very good dressers. Another musical that was referenced was The Drowsy Chaperone, which parodies American musical comedies, unfortunately another production that did well in America but didn't survive on the West End stage. A member of that production was in the audience and was praised by Nick for the quality of her singing in the show.
After this there was an opportunity to have photos taken with Mr Grace, and then a break for lunch. A very tasty buffet spread with sandwiches, salads, fruit and cakes was very welcome, and gave an opportunity to catch up with other fans.
After lunch Nick was quizzed about his film and TV career by Barnaby Eaton Jones. He told us about working on Salome's Last Dance by Ken Russell where he was surprised to be cast as Oscar Wilde considering the playwright was six foot three, and he is considerably shorter.
In 1982 he was cast in the Merchant Ivory film Heat and Dust, a romantic drama film with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based upon her novel (which is soon to be released on blu-ray, trailer here). It was filmed mostly on location in Hyderabad where the cast stayed for 12 weeks. He fell in love with India and visited Nepal after shooting finished and has visited India and Nepal several times since. Merchant Ivory productions were renowned for starting filming before they had the finance in place, and while the actors didn't bother about not getting paid on time, the crew would refuse to work if their wages hadn't gone through. This led to odd days where nothing was happening, on one occasion Nick went out drinking rather late, only to be needed back on set very early the next morning!
Nicholas Grace is quite well known in Spain as he got a role in a Spanish TV miniseries soon after Robin of Sherwood in 1987. It was called Lorca, muerte de un poeta, set during the Spanish Civil War following the life of the famous poet. He got the title part, despite not speaking much of the language, whilst helping a blind gentleman go up some steep stairs. The gentleman had known Lorca and declared that Mr Grace had his spirit. He had to learn the Spanish script, and became much more fluent, but he was still dubbed by a Spanish actor.
He talked a little about Shooting Fish, a 1987 romantic crime comedy starring a young Kate Beckinsale. Nicholas plays one of the villains but unfortunately chunks of his performance were cut, a frustrating experience for an actor. Luckily the full version of his performance appears in some versions of the film. He had a similar experience with his appearance in Killing Eve, where the end of his character's story ended up on the cutting room floor, despite him begging the director to keep it in. To add injury to insult he got bashed in the teeth as he was knocked over by a fast response team police unit in the show and had to wear braces to fix them, which he was wearing at the previous Hooded Man Event, Sheriff of Nottingham.
As well as some big parts Nick also had lesser roles in other productions including Puckoon a film made in 2002 which is written by Spike Milligan playing a character called Fogarty. He also plays a villainous priest in Sean Bean’s Sharpe in an episode called Sharpe’s Honour. In 1993 he plays a spy in the style of Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series.
Nick’s most famous role, and one which led to many other, was his Anthony Blanche character in Brideshead Revisited. We watched a clip, including a scene in a club where he drinks four Brandy Alexanders in quick succession. Unbeknownst to him the crew played a trick and replaced the fake Brandy Alexanders with real ones - you can see him wincing in the take that was used! Soon after the series finished Nick did a lecture tour of universities in America, one evening he received an invite to a party held by the British Ambassador in Washington. He got the royal treatment, collected in a limo and taken to a fancy hotel. During the party he was asked to quote various lines from the series in the persona of Blanche!
He was asked who his favourite Robin was, he apologised for his diplomatic answer, but he liked both Robins equally. Both actors brought unique qualities of their own to the character. He did know Michael from when they were both doing separate productions of Gilbert and Sullivan just prior to RoS starting and they each went to see the other in their respective shows.
Nick also has very fond memories of working with Robert Addie and quoted some lines due to audience requests, including, "Gisburne?!" and "Never assume anything, apart from the occasional air of intelligence."
Asked what role he would like to play that he has yet to do Nick replied with that he was happy with what he had done, but perhaps would like to do more comedy or more comedic roles.
A picture was brought up on the projection screen showing Nick being awarded an honourary Doctorate at the University of Chester last year. This made him quite emotional and got a standing ovation in response.
Following the panel, we had a little break, and grabbed a bit more food from the buffet, then the day ended with a screening of one of Doctor Grace's favourite film roles. This was the RSC’s musical production of Comedy of Errors from 1976, directed by Trevor Nunn, which was filmed and shown on TV in 1978, and in which he plays one of the twin servants, Dromio. Before the film started Nick indulged us with a little bit of gossip about Richard Griffiths not turning up for rehearsals for the dance acts. He plays with a stellar cast and is accompanied by many big names including Dame Judi Dench, Michael Williams, Roger Rees, Francesca Annis, Robin Ellis and even a young Ian McKellan appearing in the chorus at the end (apparently, we didn't actually spot him)!
Prior to the event I wasn’t too clear on the plot of Comedy of Errors, but it was very easy to pick up and very entertaining, almost like a good pantomime, with music and dance. All the Shakespeare text is there, but despite this the story is very easy to follow. Nick asked us if the production had aged, I must confess that I thought it still looked good - the costumes were a mix of looks from the 20th century, giving the look of a touristy Greek island. The main thing that had aged it was the audience who were shown at certain stages of the production, they were the seventies incarnate in a study of brown, yellow and orange colours with big hair and collars.
After the film Nick got another standing ovation and was more than happy to sign autographs and patiently have photos taken and shake hands with fans - I have no idea where he got the energy from for a whole day like that! NG is such a nice man and talented actor performing a myriad of roles in theatre, TV and film spanning over several decades. All in all, a wonderful event. I knew it would be one and both Nickolas Grace and Team Barnaby did not disappoint! My only complaint is that it ended, but the next full weekend will soon be upon us in October, already booked and set in my diary!